Talk:Lao/@comment-27144133-20161127025334
Spoilers for Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles X I'd like to compare Lao and Shulk and their actions. Both Lao and Shulk start their actions through a desire for vengance. Both say this; at the beginning of the journey, Shulk says "They attacked our colony, killed Fiora. I will find that Mechon - find it and destroy it." while Lao never really says that his actions were about revenge until after you defeat him, where he says, "I thought this was about them, but . . . somewhere along the way, it became about me. And about revenge." The difference is that Shulk went after Metal Face knowing that what he was after was revenge while Lao didn't realize this until after he changed his mind. Both Shulk and Lao went in intending to commit genocide on the people that they were mad at. In Shulk's case, this was the mechon while in Lao's case, this was the humans. The huge difference here is that as far as Shulk could tell, the mechon were mindless killing machines while Lao knew he was killing people. Shulk didn't want to hurt living beings (keep in mind that Xord was ultimately the one to knock himself into the ether river) while Lao made up excuses for himself. Lao told himself that "we'll all be free", "humanity shoud have died out along with the Earth", and "these scum DESERVE TO DIE". Both characters believed that they were doing the right thing. In Tephra Cave, Shulk says "It's hard to believe that living things are just a source of energy for machines. There has to be another reason." But he doesn't go beyond that. Lao convinces himself that humanity is too corrupt and injust. The reason Monolith likely did this is that they wanted the audiance to not only symphasize with Shulk, but also agree with him while Monolith wanted the audiance to symphasize with Lao but not agree with him. Both characters have understandable reasons to do what they did; they both lost a loved one. Both characters did everything in their power to save said people but failed. They both knew that said loved one would die yet they were still powerless to save them. The time between Shulk expecting Fiora's death and Fiora's death was approximately 1 minute and 27 seconds while the time between Lao anticipating his family's death and it occurring could've been years. While both were powerless to save their loved ones, at the time, Shulk knew he was powerless, all he could do was shout. Lao on the other hand was proactive in trying to save his family, which was why he joined Project Exodus in the first place. All his efforts resulted in him being saved while his wife and daughter were left on Earth. Both were powerless because of what they were relying on to save their loved ones. It's more subtle in Xenoblade, but in the scene where Metal Face kills Fiora, Shulk does not recieve a vision of her death until after he is unable to do anything (plus the Monado couldn't damage Faced Mechon at the time), however Shulk doesn't notice the vision not occuring until it's too late. Lao on the other hand became fully aware of just who got onto the White Whale and could connect the dots. Lao realized that he was being used as a tool while Shulk didn't. Shulk believed that his efforts were in vain because either he or the Monado wasn't strong enough. Lao likely felt worse than Shulk did because Lao spent more time and effort trying to save his loved ones than Shulk did and Lao knew that his family could've been saved by the people that he worked for. Midway through Xenoblade Chronicles, Shulk discovers that Fiora's alive. As a result, his quest to defeat the Mechon changes motives. Instead of him wanting revenge, it becomes him wanting to understand the Mechon's side. This is evident by when Dunban tries to kill Metal Face, Shulk says, "When we set out, I wanted to destroy all Mechon. That was my aim. But now... I know that there are people inside. I have to know why." On the other hand, when Lao realizes that he was in the wrong, he redirects his vengence at the Ganglion. The reason that we can tell this is vengence and not something else is when Lao says, "Oh, I remember all right. My family'd still be here if you hadn't brought your damned war to our doorstep!" Compared to Shulk, who was able to put his feelings aside and find common ground with Egil. The main difference between Shulk and Lao is that Shulk gets the one he loves back while Lao doesn't. When Shulk reevaluates his reason for fighting (after Prison Island), he still goes after the Mechon, but instead of going out for revenge, Shulk tries to understand why the Mechon are attacking Bionis. When Lao reevaluates his reason for fighting (during Chapter 11), he redirects his anger from the humans to the Ganglion. This difference is what caused Shulk to find common ground with Egil and Lao to murder Luxaar without a second thought.